“Some have wondered that disputes about opinions should so often end in personalities; but the fact is, that such disputes begin with personalities; for our opinions are a part of ourselves. Besides, after the first contradiction, it is ourselves, and not the thing, we maintain.”

“The reason why fools and knaves thrive better in the world than wiser and honester men is because they are nearer to the general temper of mankind, which is nothing but a mixture of cheat and folly, which those that understand and mean better cannot comply with, but entertain themselves with another kind of fool’s paradise of what should be, not what is; while those who know no better take naturally to it, and get the start of them.”